A silly and outlandish film, with somewhat limited production standards, 'The Night my number came up' is elevated to high entertainment by the professionalism of the director and the cast. There really is no way that this film should fly but, after a cautious takeoff, it gets aloft and cruises with a nice tailwind and good visibility.
Compliments to all concerned in the performance of the piece; Sheila Sim gets little to do in her final film role, which is a shame for any viewer who has seen her in 'A Canterbury Tale', but the rest of the cast, well led by Michael Redgrave, get sympathetic treatment from the director and are able to get their teeth into their characters odd and uneven inner minds.
This makes the film increasingly watchable, and the plane a happy vehicle for building dramatic belief for the audience. The special effects are dated, "period'' even, but engaging and charming and tell the story for the film because the actors are very busy communing with their characters' inner demons and mental switches and twitches.
The score and sound effects are well balanced and enhance the effect, editing allows the actors to set the pace in dialogue scenes but rapidly quickens up when action scenes do occur and the flashback, prologue, epilogue narrative structure is a decent stab at dressing the thing up as a pleasingly distracting narrative.
I rate at 6.5/10 and I recommend to fans of Ealing Studios, of Michael Redgrave in particular, and of British mid-twentieth century cinema. There's no grit involved: it's classy types being very classy "Britisher on duty" throughout, but it's carried over very nicely, so if that tone appeals then I think this film will not disappoint.
Compliments to all concerned in the performance of the piece; Sheila Sim gets little to do in her final film role, which is a shame for any viewer who has seen her in 'A Canterbury Tale', but the rest of the cast, well led by Michael Redgrave, get sympathetic treatment from the director and are able to get their teeth into their characters odd and uneven inner minds.
This makes the film increasingly watchable, and the plane a happy vehicle for building dramatic belief for the audience. The special effects are dated, "period'' even, but engaging and charming and tell the story for the film because the actors are very busy communing with their characters' inner demons and mental switches and twitches.
The score and sound effects are well balanced and enhance the effect, editing allows the actors to set the pace in dialogue scenes but rapidly quickens up when action scenes do occur and the flashback, prologue, epilogue narrative structure is a decent stab at dressing the thing up as a pleasingly distracting narrative.
I rate at 6.5/10 and I recommend to fans of Ealing Studios, of Michael Redgrave in particular, and of British mid-twentieth century cinema. There's no grit involved: it's classy types being very classy "Britisher on duty" throughout, but it's carried over very nicely, so if that tone appeals then I think this film will not disappoint.